Category Archives: Fantasy

287G: Horse in Forest of Silver Trees

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My daughter (now age 20), has been searching for years to find a book she loved to check out from her elementary school library in first grade +/-.  She has re-searched the library many times, spoken to teachers, friends and has had no luck.  I remember her bringing it home, so I know it isn’t a figment of her imagination.

What she remembers:

— Picture book of a horse in a forest of silver trees, limited (if any) text

— Illustrations in black ink/watercolor style

— Limited color palette, black, white, gold and maybe silver

— Possibly part of a series/pack of picture books

— Horse is main character on some kind of quest or adventure, with many crystals in the forest, possibly gold

— Special lake in the forest, perhaps also a cave

— Likely blue hard cover, she thinks larger than 8.5×11

— Likely an “older” book, I’m guessing from 1960s or even older

 

287D: Dark YA book about a girl who befriends fairies

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I read this book in the early 1990s, but have no idea when it was published. The details I remember are that there is a girl who is for some reason befriended by fairies. She shrinks down and goes to visit them. Maybe she’s going to become their queen or something? For some reason she ends up with this necklace made of thorns that she can’t take off. The only other thing I remember is that the fairies would feed her nectar from a flower.

287C: A tree in the forest with special powers

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Looking for a children’s chapter book from the 1960s or early 70’s about a tree in the forest that has special powers. I recall that the vines were alive as was the tree – but I recall only a girl in the story could communicate with the tree and either visited or lived beneath the ground by the tree? For some reason I recall descriptions about being under the ground at times. I don’t think it was a scary tree. More like a friend and protector to the girl. Would love to track it down if possible.

 

286H: A world without reflections

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I am looking for a children’s book I read in 90s. I read it in the library of the language school.

A group of children find a gate that leads to another world, a world without any reflections (even when looked at surface of water). The gate itself is such that it does not pass any metals (coins burn red hot if attempted to be carried through). One of the children find out that their ancestors originate from this world, and that world is now under control by mean men. At the book first climax, a Locket Necklace worn by the child happened to contain small mirror, and it is used to distract and defeat the leader of the mean men.

284D: Alternate outcomes become alternate worlds

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In the world of this book, every time something happens, like a war, both outcomes come true. A new world is created with the alternate outcome. So there are many earths. The one that this one takes place on is not ours. In this Earth, America is called Atlantis.

The children survive the shipwreck because the boy is a witch and the sister hangs onto him. But you don’t find that out till the end. You think – because she says so – that she is the witch and she saved him.

He is left-handed, which where they came from is punished but where they have arrived at, is celebrated as it is a sign of being a witch. That’s all I remember….

I probably read it in the late seventies, possibly early 80’s. I was probably around 12 – it was a middle-year chapter book. It was really good.

I hope it sounds familiar to someone! Thanks for your help!

274A: Female character called “Thingy” (Solved)

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This is a fantasy book from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.  The story centers around a young girl who is raised as a servant by a witch.  The setting is the swampy area near a river.  Because the witch has told the girl she is ugly, when the girl comes in contact with other people (which is rarely), the girl wears a mask to hide her ugly face.  The witch calls the girl “Thingy.” In the story, the girl accompanies a stranger in a boat on the river.  She is escaping (?) the witch or acting as a guide(?) for the man.  During the journey, the girl learns her true identity and the truth about her appearance.

273D: Ethereal Little Mermaid Illustrations

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I’m looking for a Hans Christian Andersen collection of fairy tales from the early 90s. I read it when around 1994-6 but it could have been published a little earlier. I remember it for its Little Mermaid illustrations. They were so beautiful and seemed to glow. Lots of pale mermaids with long blonder hair. Like angels. The pages I remember most are the pictures where the Little Mermaid’s sisters are hoisting each other up out of the sea to hand her a dagger to kill the prince. The last page is the Little Mermaid floating to the sky as an angel after she kills herself to save the prince. It was hardcover and I believe it also had The Princess and the Pea and The Tin Solider stories in it, but I think different illustrators worked on them.

 

Hope this was enough to be helpful. I tried to look up books published in that time frame with Hans Christian Andersen author credits, but couldn’t find a comprehensive list.

272I: A girl experiences a ghostly phenomenon

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This was a book my doctor had in his office when I was a kid in the 70s. It was a small paperback about a house that was haunted by children who used to live there–I think there may have been a murder committed that started the haunting, and a little girl who was either living in the house or had visited it who was experiencing the ghostly phenomenon.

272F: Picture book about pesticides/food chain

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This was a picture book from my childhood (so, early 90s). The kingdom wants to rid itself of some kind of insect (I think), so they spread pesticide or dust which I believe was purple all around. I think everything up the food chain starts getting purple spots, until the princess ends up with a purple spot on her nose and they realize the error of their ways.